Share This Story!

Defense: CEO capitalized on Va. gov's 'broken' marriage

RICHMOND, Va. — The stress of the governor's office broke the marriage of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, developed a crush on a businessman who wanted favors from the governor, lawyers for the couple said Tuesday in the McDonnells' federal corruption trial.

Post to Facebook

{#
#}

CancelSend

Sent!

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

50

Join the Conversation

Defense: CEO capitalized on Va. gov's 'broken' marriage

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife's marriage was broken, and Maureen McDonnell developed a crush on the CEO who wanted favors from the governor, attorneys said during Tuesday's federal corruption trial.
VPC

Nick Ochsner and Peggy Fox, USA TODAY
5:51 p.m. PDT July 29, 2014

Buy Photo

In this courtroom sketch at the federal corruption trial of former Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, center, and his wife, former first lady Maureen McDonnell, second from right, Judge James R. Spencer, left, presides during jury selection July 28, 2014, in Richmond, Va.(Photo: Dana Verkouteren, AP)Buy Photo

RICHMOND, Va. — The stress of the governor's office broke the marriage of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, developed a crush on a businessman who wanted favors from the governor, lawyers for the couple said Tuesday in the McDonnells' federal corruption trial.

Prosecutors painted the McDonnells as a broke, greedy couple who traded favors in exchange for lavish gifts from Jonnie Williams, then chief executive of Star Scientific.

"Unlike the other man in her life, Jonnie paid attention to her," said Bill Burck, Maureen McDonnell's lawyer. Burck spent his opening statement tearing down Williams, saying the wealthy businessman duped the then-governor's wife and that Williams' version of the events that transpired between him and the McDonnells changed nine times.

"Each time it gets better and better for the government," Burck said.

The McDonnells, married 38 years, are accused in a 14-count indictment of conspiring to use the governor's position to enrich themselves. Prosecutors say they took $165,000 in loans and gifts from Williams and in return promoted his nutritional supplement Anatabloc.

Williams, the government's star witness, received immunity from prosecution and will testify against the McDonnells. He stepped down Dec. 27 from Star Scientific, based in the Richmond suburb of Glen Allen, amid a securities probe and shareholder lawsuits; in early June, the public company changed its name to Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RCPI) and moved to Sarasota, Fla.

The McDonnells are being tried together, even though they requested separate court dates and are traveling to and from the federal courthouse here separately. In the courtroom, they sit yards apart, each surrounded by separate legal teams.

As Maureen McDonnell's lawyers laid out their case for the eight-man, four-woman jury Tuesday, the couple's separate courthouse strategy became more clear: Her lawyer said Williams "filled the void" in Maureen McDonnell's broken marriage and became her "favorite playmate," exchanging more than 1,200 calls and text messages during the period covered in the indictment.

Burck did not imply an affair but called the relationship between the two "inappropriate for two people that are not married."

Bob McDonnell's lawyer, John Brownlee, also said the governor's constant travel, 16-hour workdays and other stressors led Maureen McDonnell to hate the man she married in 1976 and had five children with — that they couldn't conspire to commit the crimes they have been accused of because they weren't speaking to each other at the time.

Later in what is expected to will be a five-week trial, Bob McDonnell will take the stand in his own defense, reading a long e-mail between the couple, "begging his wife to help him save their marriage," Brownlee said.

Instead, Williams saw the McDonnells' marital problems as an opportunity to befriend Maureen McDonnell for his own purposes, Bob McDonnell's lawyer said.

"It created a riff so wide that an outsider — in this case another man — could invade and poison the marriage," Brownlee said.

The indictment indicates that Maureen McDonnell asked Williams for money and expensive items, including a $6,500 Rolex watch for her husband.

Prosecutor Jessica Aber tallied more than $120,000 in cash that the McDonnells accepted in loans and gifts, including a $15,000 check that Williams wrote to pay to cater the wedding of their daughter Cailin. She was among the first witnesses the prosecution called and broke down in tears when she was shown photos of her wedding; federal District Judge James Spencer called for a 10-minute recess.

"Is it OK for a friend to give gifts to politicians? What does that mean for the commonwealth?" Those are the questions this trial is centered on, said Deidre Condit, head of Virginia Commonwealth University's Public Policy Department in the state's capital city.

Buy Photo

Jonnie Williams left, and Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell stand together during a reception at the Executive Mansion in this May 5, 2011, file photo from the Virginia Governor's Office.(Photo: Michaele White, AP)

Virginia law does not limit gifts to a governor or his family; however, it does require disclosure of anything valued at more than $50 or smaller items valued at least $100 together. Aber said the McDonnells accepted more than $150,000 in gifts from Williams and tried to hide them while promoting Williams' nutrition supplement.

At one point, Aber showed a photograph of Bob McDonnell driving Williams' Ferrari back to the governor's mansion after a weekend away at Williams' home beside Smith Mountain Lake near Roanoke, Va.

But the McDonnells' lawyers injected a new twist in the case with their defense strategy.

"The prosecution has a tough case. There's no clear quid pro quo," Latin for something for something, political analyst Bob Holsworth said. "And in some cases, it might look like Jonnie Williams may have gotten strung along."

Officials worked late Monday to seat a 12-member jury and four alternates to keep the trial on schedule. During Monday's jury selection process, the former governor was seen reading from a prayer book.

Several McDonnell family members are on the prosecution's witness list and so are many former members of the governor's staff. The defense witness list includes former governor Douglas Wilder and current House Speaker William Howell, a Republican from Stafford, Va.

Being on a witness list means only that the person could be called to testify. All of the McDonnells' children are listed.

In court on Monday, 142 potential jurors were asked questions including whether anyone in their family works in banking or mortgage lending, whether they work for the state of Virginia and whether they or family members have ever been convicted of a crime.